Today is Saint Theodore Tyron of Amasea feast in Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Every year this feast is among the biggest feasts in the Church. The feast is venerated highly because there are a lot of people with Theodor or (Bulgarian variant of name Todor). St. Theodor’s day in Bulgaria is considered having similar size to st. George’s day. St. Theodor is also highly venerated in Greek Church and across all Eastern Orthodox Churches. On St. Theodor’s day in Church and Bulgaria there is tradition to prepare Kolyvo (Kolivo) a mixture of boiled wheat with honey and raisins which is distributed among the faithful Christians in Church. This local tradition is marked following a miracle done by st. Theodor 50 years after his maryrdom (confessionary) death by burning. Here is the story behind why Kolyvo is distributed in the Church. The emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363) commanded the governor of Constantinople during the first week of Great Lent to sprinkle all the food provisions in the marketplace with the blood offered to pagan idols, knowing that the people would be hungry after the strict fasting of the first week. Thus he would force the Christians to unknowingly eat food “polluted” (from the Christian perspective) with the blood of idolatry. St Theodore appeared in a dream to the Archbishop of Constantinople, Eudoxius, ordering him to inform all the Christians that no one should buy anything at the market, but rather to boil the wheat they had at home and eat it sweetened with honey.
The Christians being warned about the special made food to desanctify them and their fasting eat the Kolyvo for a week, thus being able to keep the fasting thanks to St. Theodore’s visionary warning.